G: Each week, Heidi and I welcome you to Healing the
Grieving Heart, a show of hope and conversation with those whoíve
suffered the loss of a loved one and for healthcare professionals who work in
this most difficult field. And as always the message is others have been there
before you and made it, you can, too. You need not walk alone. <abridged> These shows are archived on our blog, www.thegriefblog.com,
as well as thecompassionatefriends.org
websites.

G: <abridged> Well, Heidi, would you like to
introduce our guest today?

H: Sure, Iíd be honored to. Our topic today is
"Healing Through Service" and our guest is John Pete. John Pete is a
certified grief counselor and founder of www.mygriefspace.com.
Like many others, John came to the field through losses in his personal life
that include drowning, suicides, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, homicide,
leukemia, AIDS and pets. Whenever possible, John uses his personal experiences
to ease the suffering of others who have lost a loved one. He encourages anyone
grieving a loss to actively seek out healing resources as a way to regain some
much-needed control in their lives. John states that he finds tremendous
personal healing by helping others. Welcome to the show, John.

John: Good morning, itís great to be here.

G: Hi, John, itís great to have you on the show.

J: Hi, Dr. Gloria.

G: Well, first of all I just want to mention www.mygriefspace.com
to start with because youíre trying to do a lot with your site to help people.
Youíre having chat rooms. What else can people do from your site?

J: Well, actually our site is pretty comprehensive. It
offers resources for blogging. Our blogs also have the capability to be used as
a private journal as some people donít want to post publicly. We have a pen
pals area where people can sign up and become pen pals with other members on our
site. We offer support groups broken down by types of losses, and those are
headed by members themselves. And then we have a live chat room which is secure
behind a password so they can feel secure talking about their losses. And weíre
looking to add new things all the time.

G: Thatís great. Tell us and weíll talk a little bit
more about your site a little later on in the show, but tell us how you got into
this field. I mean youíve had quite a few losses.

J: Right. The most recent thing that happened in my life
that really pushed me towards this was I lost my best friend to suicide. We had
been best friends for over 20 years and he really had no other family so he kind
of became another one of my brothers in my family. And we did a lot of things
together, spent weekends hiking in Colorado and doing all kinds of things
together and he did suffer from mental illness which deteriorated through the
years. And I had moved to New York and been gone for two years and got a call
one day. I had just talked to him a couple days before he took his life on the
phone and Ė

G: Thatís a tough thing to have talked to somebody and
felt like you could do something about it, right?

J: Right, absolutely. And they always say hindsight is
20/20. The phone call that I got from him was, you know how much our
relationship has meant to me and Iíve really enjoyed the years of hiking, and
it did seem a little odd to me at the time. But you donít ever piece it
together.

G: Right. Yeah, you donít get it until after.

J: Yeah, and then a couple days later I got a phone call
from another mutual friend who said that he had taken his life earlier that day,
and it was very traumatic. And as you mentioned, Iíve had gosh, I think I sat
down yesterday and just quickly counted up, and it wasnít all-inclusive, but
something like 10-15 losses in the past 10-15 years.

H: Wow, thatís awful. What was your friendís name?

J: My friendís name was Rich.

H: Rich?

J: Rich Kennedy. Yes, yes. And at that point it pushed me
Ė I wanted to do something. As I went through my own grief over the next year
and tried to sort out what happened, I was doing a lot of research primarily on
the Internet looking at different sites and different resources, and it began to
occur to me that I was spending a lot of time jumping from site to site to site
to site. And I thought, why not put a lot of these resources together into one
site? And that kind of sparked the idea for www.mygriefspace.com
which is now www.mygriefspace.net
by the way.

G: Oh, you changed it to .net. Weíve got that on our
site, www.thegriefblog.com. Well, tell
us, youíre a certified grief counselor. Were you a counselor before you had
these tragedies, and what got you into grief counseling?

J: No, actually again it was at the point where I was
doing a lot of research and working through my own grief. One of the things that
I found most helpful to me was talking with other people, relating to other
people.

G: Now are you talking about your grief with Rich or
someone else?

J: I think my grief with Rich and I think past grief,
unresolved grief over the few years preceding that.

G: And what was that?

J: You mean who was that?

H: Right.

J: I lost my grandmother who I was very close to. She
helped raise me as a child, and after that I lost two close friends, one to a
brain hemorrhage and another one to AIDS. And then not long after that I lost
another close friend to a brain hemorrhage.

G: It sounds like youíre a good friend, doesnít it,
Heidi?

H: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think youíre making a really
good point also, John, because itís not necessarily who died, itís the
relationship we had with that person. And like you said, your grandmother helped
raise you and these friends of yours were like brothers to you so you had a very
tight bond with the people that died.

J: Right.

G: Yeah, I think one of the things we forget sometimes is
that there are primary care givers that people are very bonded with.

J: Yeah, and I think I do take that on a lot with my
friends. I donít have a lot of casual friends. Most of my friends are a close
inner circle of friends and when something happens to them, it seems to affect
all of us pretty profoundly in our group.

H: I think in society, and you can tell me if this has
been your experience, but in society people tend to judge peopleís loss and
say well, that person wasnít related or that person wasnít a brother or that
person was the grandmother so therefore your grief should not be as significant.
It should not be as big, and I donít agree with that.

J: Yeah, youíre absolutely right. I run into that all
the time, not only with myself but with other people, where people are telling
them well, it was just a friend or it was just somebody you worked with, but
that doesnít negate your feelings of grief are real. They are what they are.

H: Exactly. And you need to have them acknowledged and
validated.

J: Yes, yes. And so eventually all of this made me want to
get into the field of helping others. I kind of always found myself going
quickly from being helped by the support of others to being the one that was
trying to help everybody all the time. So I think it is important, though, that
anybody that gets into this field is at a point in their own grief that theyíre
ready to help other people and it doesnít drag them back into their own grief.

J: Letís see, he died in April 2003 and we got our site
launched in December 2006.

G: Now what were you doing before you went into the grief
counseling business?

J: Wow, I was doing a lot of different things actually. Iíve
had a pretty diverse career. I would say I did grow up in human services. My
parents were in the nursing home business so I was always exposed to that and
earlier, fresh out of high school and even through high school I did a lot of
work in nursing homes and that kind of got me into that. Right out of high
school I worked for 10 years as a residential counselor for developmentally
disabled adults. I got kind of burned out on that and I left that and did a
complete flip-flop and went into the banking business where I was an operations
supervisor for a few years. And then I managed a staffing agency after that,
again a kind of diverse employment, and then after that I went into the grief
counseling.

G: And Iíd love to talk about how you got into that
counseling. I think itís very interesting to me how youíve come around to
that because I know a lot of our audience is interested in going into this field
since theyíve gotten into it I think, and weíve had people ask us how we
entered the field. So maybe we can talk a little bit about that when we come
back from break. Weíre going on break and Iím your host Dr. Gloria Horsley
with my co-host Dr. Heidi Horsley. Please join us on this show by calling our
toll-free number, 1-866-472-5792. If you would like to email us about this or
upcoming shows, you can reach Heidi and me through our blog, www.thegriefblog.com.
Our guest today is John Pete and our topic is "Healing Through
Service." Please stay tuned for more.

G: And I want to remind people if youíd like to call in,
our toll-free number for this show is 1-866-472-5792. Also email us through our
blog, www.thegriefblog.com about any
shows that youíd like to hear about and any topics. So John and Heidi, when we
went to break we were talking about how John got into the field. But before we
do that, I just want to again mention www.mygriefspace.com because itís a fun
place to go. Well, I guess if grief can be fun. Itís kind of an uplifting
place to go, John, I want to say that. I like your colors and your energy on the
space. Itís nice.

J: Now if people go in through .com itís okay because I
do own both and one will lead to the other. But it is on .net.

H: Well, I like the fact that itís so comprehensive and
I love the pen pals because sometimes when weíve had certain losses, people
that have had similar losses can really relate to you.

J: Yeah, that was something somebody suggested. One of our
members suggested they just wanted some way to directly go into the site and
find other people with similar loss. We do have a search feature where they can
also do that, but I thought the pen pals was a great idea so we added that on.

H: I love that and I know that Iíve been working with
9/11 for six years and my 9/11 families say to me all the time, Heidi, people
that have had other losses really canít relate. What Iím going through is
unique because it is so public and the way that they feel this through searching
others that have had someone die on 9/11.

G: Yeah, so that is a great idea. Well, letís talk about
how you did get into the field. When we were at break, we were also talking
about the fact that your dad is ill with cancer and that his mother, your
grandmother on your dadís side died. Thatís kind of hard for him with
cancer.

J: Yeah, it was.

G: To lose his mother. I donít care if sheís 96 or
whatever.

J: Right. It did take a toll on him and I was coming back
and forth from New York the past couple of years. I made a couple of trips back
when he had surgery for his cancer which was in his throat and I saw him
deteriorating and we were never quite sure which way it was going to go.
Thankfully, heís doing well right now but I just decided that it was time to
come back to Denver to be closer to family. As your parents get older you do
start to think about those things.

G: Well, as a grief counselor, what do you find? I was in
the field of grief and loss when Scott was killed in 1983. I was actually
working as a clinical nurse specialist at a hospital and I was working with
people whose kids were killed in automobile accidents and burn units and all
sorts of things. And yeah, what do you see about a counselor having grief?

J: Well, itís going to happen, of course, and I think
how we handle grief as grief counselors is not so different than everybody else.
We may be armed with a little more information and be a little more prepared,
but I think when it happens to us, we go through everything that everybody else
goes through.

G: Thatís a very good point. I think thatís extremely
true because I remember after Scott died, some of the psychiatrists and other
nurses and people that I worked with at the hospital, I remember one friend
standing with me and I was reading through some of the literature because Iíd
actually written articles and things and Iím like I am going through all these
things, yearning and searching and emptiness in my stomach and waves of grief
and all these things. Iím reading about them and Iím doing them.

H: Plus the bottom line is you can read all you want about
pain and rage and anger and depression and until youíve actually felt it at
your core, you canít begin to get how much pain youíre going to be in and
how hard itís going to be.

J: That is such an excellent point because I think a lot
of people that come to the field of grief counseling come here through their own
losses and their own experiences and end up wanting to help others. I mean loss
is an experience in life like nothing else and having been there yourself is
just invaluable to helping others. You can go get all of the technical
experience and all the book experience and all the degrees and what not, but I
think one thing that you canít get anywhere else is the experience itself,
until itís happened to you.

G: Itís a tough way to get it.

J: Yeah, it is, it is.

G: Yeah, I think you make an important point there and one
of the things that I found as a professional is that sometimes people hide their
loss because youíre not supposed to talk about it. That's like back with the
Freudian kind of thing. Youíre not supposed to reveal anything about yourself
as a therapist. And I think weíre kind of giving up that idea, donít you,
Heidi?

H: I absolutely donít practice that way. I do tell my
story. However, I donít get into detail and I always check in with myself, who
am I doing this for? Am I doing it to help my client or am I doing it for
myself? When Iím appropriate with them and when I show empathy and tears with
my clients, itís for them, and I never do it to the point where they have to
take care of me because this is about their loss and their grief and not mine.

G: Thatís a great point especially for our audience out
there. If you are in therapy or if youíre finding a therapist, and you
sometimes feel uncomfortable that theyíre getting too involved or a friend is
getting too involved in their own story, itís time to find somebody else to
check in with. You need support.

H: Right, you donít need to be taking care of your
therapist and also all losses are unique and different and I say to my clients,
and John, I donít know if you do as well, you probably do. I say, look, I know
what itís like to lose a brother in an instant and have my life turned upside
down. However, I donít know what itís like to lose someone in the World
Trade Center. Thatís your experience and your journey and together weíre
going to heal.

J: Right, I agree and it is their journey and you are
there to support them in their journey and I think that is a very, very valid
point that itís not about you. I did get into this because it is healing to
me, but at the same time I donít go in and spend my sessions talking about
Johnís grief. You go in and you focus on them. You draw on your experiences to
help them but you make it about them.

G: And John, how did you get into the field of grief and
loss? You were in banking and all these things and then you decided to go into
the field. What if weíve got somebody out there who is in a totally different
field? What did you do?

J: Actually, while I was surfing endless hours online
sometimes at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, when I was going through my own grief, I
met a gentleman named Dr. Dominick Flarey, who heads the American Institute of
Healthcare Professionals. And I emailed him and talked to him about that I was
having an interest in helping other people and got suggestions from him, and
they actually have a course that lasts about Ė Itís self-paced but it takes
about a year to complete the course and it does involve fieldwork. I know a lot
of people shy away when you say learning to do something on the Internet but it
does involve testing. It is accredited and it does involve a lot of fieldwork
that is invaluable to becoming a grief counselor. So I kept in contact with him
and when I was ready to move further into the field I began taking their course
and it was a lot more intensive than I had expected but it was great. It was a
great course, and itís something that anybody that has a genuine interest and
a commitment to become a grief counselor can do it.

G: Thatís interesting. Online. Where would they get in
touch with to do that?

J: Their website I think, I donít know 100%, I think itís
www.aihcp.com, American Institute of
Healthcare Professionals.com.

G: And they could probably go to your space at www.mygriefspace.net
and get that information from you, too, right?

J: Yes. And I would also suggest reaching out to others in
the field. Email others that are in the field that are helping people and ask
them about their experiences. Itís not something you want to go into blindly.
I think itís something that you really have to want badly to do and be
dedicated to do it.

H: And John, are you in a private practice now or how do
you see clients now?

J: Well, I generally was seeing people one on one in New
York. I didnít do group support. Now that Iím in Denver, I havenít really
decided yet which direction Iím going to take it and I have been focusing on
my website. But I do think that moving forward Iíll definitely get back into
one-on-one counseling but I probably will also expand into group support.

H: Well, if thereís people in the Denver area that would
like to get involved, they should go on www.mygriefspace.net
to get in touch with you?

J: Absolutely. Iím open to hearing from anybody at any
time on our site.

G: What kind of plans Ė I know you have some interesting
thoughts about the Internet and what can happen. What kind of plans would you
see for the Internet?

J: Well, I think the Internet has opened up a whole new
world. I mean we were doing grief counseling. I think it was evolving about the
same time as the Internet was evolving and at this point instead of reaching out
just to your community you can reach out to millions of people literally. So I
think it plays an extremely important role in providing grief support.

H: I was just going to say, Mom and John, itís a virtual
community 24/7 and sometimes our grief is the most profound in the middle of the
night.

G: Absolutely.

H: And to be able to log on and have a community and a
support system I think is invaluable.

G: And we found with the radio show weíve gotten, I
think weíre up to 22,000 people now listening to the show and itís just an
amazing thing that people can come in and listen to the show and hear people
like John talk on the show. Isnít it, Heidi?

H: Absolutely and itís very important to know that thereís
people out there that will give you metaphorically speaking a hand and that youíre
not alone in all this.

G: And the other thing is everybody grieves differently
and hereís an opportunity to hear over 100 different people talking about
their grief process which is quite an amazing thing and also professionals in
the field. Well, weíre coming up on break now and Iím your host Dr. Gloria
Horsley with my co-host Dr. Heidi Horsley. Please stay tuned to hear more from
our guest, John Pete, about "Healing Through Service." You can call us
at our toll-free number, 1-866-472-5792 with questions or comments regarding the
losses in your life. You can also reach us through the blog, www.thegriefblog.com.
Stay tuned for more.

Well, this is a very exciting and interesting show for
Heidi and me to have on because given the fact that our radio show is done on
the Internet, weíve got www.thegriefblog.com,
and we are starting a foundation called The Open To Hope Foundation. And we will
also probably be changing the name of the show to The Open To Hope Show but itíll
all be the same. Youíll be able to get in touch with us but itís going to be
a big change on the Internet. Weíre going to have a bigger site. Weíll have
our blog and everything and youíll be able to find us, but weíre excited
about the opportunity for community on the Internet as I know that John is. And
we were talking about how great his space is, www.mygriefspace.net.
You want to go look at it. We love his pen pal thing. Itís uplifting. It just
gives you a warm feeling when you go on it, doesnít it Heidi?

H: Yes, and just to add to that, Mom, itís so
comprehensive. I mean with the blogs, pen pals, support groups, live chat rooms.
Itís a very comprehensive site.

G: Yeah, I think for John and for Heidi and me, weíre
all into this for the service to you all out there and we hope that youíll
tell everyone about it and get everyone involved in the community with us so we
can have this community of hope, wouldnít you say, John?

J: Yes, definitely and if I could also give your site a
quick plug. We have nearly 1,000 members on our site and I am constantly sending
people over to www.thegriefblog.com to
connect with people that have posted there that have losses similar to their
own. So I also want to applaud you for that site. Itís been a great resource
for our members as well.

G: Oh, great. And the radio show, right? Archives.

J: And the radio show archives, absolutely. I love the
archives. The archives are great. Anytime I have spare time I jump in there and
find a different archive show to listen to.

G: Yeah, one of the things we want to do with our new site
is we want to group Ė Now we have enough shows to group on different topics
like the loss of a sibling, loss of an adult child, loss of a parent. So weíre
hoping to do a little bit more of that, arenít we, Heidi?

H: Yeah, absolutely, and I just wanted to say one more
thing about service which I love. This is why I love the Internet also. Even if
youíre newly bereaved and you feel like you just canít do anything or give
back, sometimes even if you feel really bad, you can get on the Internet and
reach out to someone else who has had a loss and you can give back that way and
be of service and that can be the beginning of your healing process.

J: Yes, there is a choice to do that. Whoever posts the
blog has the choice to open it up for comments.

G: So I think youíre right, Heidi. Just making that
comment can be the first step out to helping others. Well, John, I wanted to ask
you, we were talking about grief. Youíre a certified grief counselor. Your dad
now has throat cancer and his mother died recently. What kinds of thoughts do
you have for people on this ongoing journey that weíre having in the world?

J: I think itís really important for people not only
that have lost someone or that are going to lose someone but in general to be
attentive to the fact that itís very, very likely that we are going to lose
loved ones in our lives. And it seems to me, I run into this a lot that society
has kind of turned a blind eye to the topic of death and dying and healing
afterwards. I donít often run into people that are teaching their children
about death and dying and how to cope with it.

G: Or schools that have it in their curriculum.

J: Schools would be great.

G: Yeah. Well, I was saying to Heidi earlier that John
Edwards and his wife had mentioned, I donít know if you saw it in the press,
but they mentioned the death of their son, Wade. And people said that was a
cheap shot to use that for political gain. And Elizabeth Edwards said, thatís
ridiculous. Isnít that just unbelievable that people would say that?

H: I donít understand that comment. That comment doesnít
make any sense to me.

G: And people just donít get it in the world that we
honor our loved ones by remembering them.

H: Exactly.

G: That itís not about getting --

H: And theyíre amazing role models of showing people
that itís okay to keep memories alive of Wade and Rich and my brother Scott.
Weíre always going to do that. Theyíre always a part of our lives even
though theyíre not here.

G: One of the things I like to say is, someone asked me
the other day well, you never get over it, right? And I said well, you know
what? Iím not suffering anymore. I remember, but not with suffering.

H: I like that.

J: Right, and I think look, what does that comment mean?
Getting over it. We move into different places with our loss. I donít think
any of us want to get over who our loved one is in our life and who they always
will be in our life. Itís what we do with that grief and how we heal it.

H: I love that.

G: And that gets me to the point I wanted to ask you,
John. How do you take care of yourself with your dad being ill and with your
grandma dying? How do you take care of yourself and what do you suggest to your
clients?

J: Well, I do think that it is important to let yourself
get somewhat involved because you want to be able to draw on your personal
experiences. But I think that you canít take that to heart when you, if youíre
on our site helping someone, when you leave that site there are other people
that youíre going to be helping and you canít let that accumulate to drag
you down or it will pull you back down into your own grief. So I think you
really have to focus on it while youíre in it and then you have to go on to
whatever youíre doing next. You can always come back to it. Itís always
going to be there waiting for you if you want to come back to it or you need to
re-address it or you need to do more counseling with that person. Itís always
going to be there. You can come back to it. Itís okay to leave it there and go
on to what you need to do next.

H: So compartmentalizing.

J: Yes, I think so.

H: I agree with you.

G: Now what do you do for yourself physically? Are you a
walker or a runner or what do you do to take care of yourself?

J: My outlet actually is I love building websites, and Iím
not real technical about it. I do use web-building software, but I love building
websites for other people and I do a lot of that and thatís a great outlet for
me. And I think whatever anybodyís outlet is, it might be a hobby, it might be
exercise, it might be something else. Whatever it is, you can focus on that as a
distraction.

H: So you design and create things.

J: Yes, I love to design and create things. Thatís very
true.

G: How about you, Heidi?

H: My outlet? Oh, letís see. Walking, yoga, those kind
of things, yeah, and I definitely compartmentalize like John said, taking time
to visit grief and pain and then putting it away in a little box in my head. I
just kind of metaphorically speaking put it all in there and shut it and say you
know what? Now I need to focus on something else. Now I need to take care of
myself. Now I need to do something positive because I can go and revisit it if I
need to.

G: Because you have a pretty intense business where you
actually go into peopleís homes.

H: Yes, I do.

G: And work with them.

H: I go into peopleís homes and do therapy and work with
people that had deaths in 9/11, and the way that I take care of myself in that
is we go in with a team and afterwards Iím able to talk with other people and
share my feelings or my pain or my thoughts with a group of other people. I
think itís important that we not try to handle everything on our own. In other
words, for those of you that are grieving out there, itís important to find
people that you can reach out to. Donít try to do this on your own. Reach out
to others.

G: And I think the Net is a great way to reach out.
However, sometimes people need some human contact, too, would you say, John?

J: Oh, most definitely, most definitely. I think nearly
everybody that I talk with on our site, well, first off thatís one of the
things that we do talk about is building a network of support around you and
that very importantly includes human contact. Your friends, supportive friends,
supportive family members, supportive clergy, whoever it is that you can put
around you to help you get through this and cope with it on a day-to-day basis.

G: And of course animals, too.

J: And animals. Animals are great.

H: They are. In fact Iíve known many people that have
gotten dogs including my own family after someone died and said it really helped
in healing.

J: I think itís the nurturing. You have something around
you to nurture.

G: Well, the other thing that happened with us. Heidiís
talking about our little dog. We got a Shih Tzu named Brittany after Scott died.
And the thing was that people had something to talk to us about. Itís strange,
but everyone would come up and talk about our dog.

J: Right, isnít that the truth? People do not know what
to say when somebody has died and itís really not that easy for anybody
listening that might take something away from this. Just be there for them. Just
say Iím sorry for your loss. Iím here to listen, and that will open a huge
door, bigger than you think.

G: Well, one thing I want to say, and Heidi and I have
found it, weíve been discussing this recently, John, is the fact that not
everyone needs a grief group out there. We always recommend The Compassionate
Friends or other groups. We have one in Palo Alto called Kara, and I am group
leader for a Compassionate Friends group in Palo Alto, California. But some
people donít want to do group and they like the Internet and they find that
helpful. Some people find it with their clergy. Some people read more than
others. Theyíre just very fascinating, the different approaches. Some people
like individual therapy, some people donít. They donít get a lot out of it.

H: But some people donít want to hear other peopleís
stories I found. They want to tell their story but they have difficulty hearing
others and I think like you said, Mom, thatís fine. Whatever method works for
you.

G: Yeah, I think thatís right. Do you have a comment on
that, John?

J: Well, yeah, I think that opening up whatever resources
are available to people, and if youíre really listening to people, you will
find what works for that individual person and then you can encourage them in
that direction. And it is something different for everybody.

G: And get in touch with yourself. If youíre feeling
lonely, you need to reach out even if itís hard for you to get out of bed.

H: Well, and one way you can do that, Mom, is go on the
Internet and read peopleís stories. You donít necessarily even have to
respond. It's just as a way of connecting with something or someone.

G: And even turning your computer on can be a big deal.

H: Yeah.

G: Just getting out of bed to do that. We know that, but
also with the Internet, with the radio show, you do get a human voice, which I
think is interesting. But we donít get a lot of call-ins on this show, which
is fascinating. We know we have a lot of you listening out there, but I think
thatís part of the process. Itís part of the Internet process and also maybe
some of the folks that listen to us are people who donít want to talk.

H: Possibly, yeah. And it can be a little intimidating to
call in also. I remember before I hosted the show I had to call in. I called in
at one point and then I was a little anxious and waiting. I mean once people get
on they like it because they realize itís very casual, but just the process of
sitting and actually doing it can be stressful.

G: Yeah. Have you got any thoughts about that, John?

J: Well, along those lines, one of the things that we are
planning on adding to our website is the ability for people not only to chat but
to use Web cams and see each other while theyíre chatting. And I think that
takes chat to the next level and I think that can be a good and positive thing
and itís totally optional.

G: Very interesting whatís going on with the Internet.
Sometime weíre hoping to have some educational kinds of things going on, too,
because we have our experts on the show. Weíre hoping to get a newsletter out
and a few things so we can combine the educational along with the survivors and
mix it up back and forth. Well, weíre coming up on break now and Iím your
host Dr. Gloria Horsley with my co-host Dr. Heidi Horsley. Please stay tuned to
hear more from our guest, John Pete, about "Healing Through Service."
You can call us on our toll-free number 1-866-472-5792 regarding our show or
questions that you might have or things that you might want to hear on the next
show. You can email us through our blog, www.thegriefblog.com,
and these shows are archived on our blog and on www.thecompassionatefriends.org
website. Please stay tuned for more.

Well, John this is our last segment and I just want to
again mention to people that they ought to take a look at www.mygriefspace.net
and go into that and might want to interact with that site. I wanted to ask you,
I know we were talking yesterday about the fact that when we get low and are
wondering what weíre doing spending all these many, many hours on the Internet
that you will get some kind of a message that comes through. You said that
sometimes you feel like is it really worth it? All these hours Iím spending on
this. Are people really out there? And then you said you get comments from
people that really keep you going. Do you have any thoughts on that, any
comments in particular that youíve found inspiring?

J: Absolutely and it happens every week that you kind of
hit a point. You put so many hours into it and you start to wonder sometimes am
I really helping somebody or who am I really helping? And then youíll get
comments back, people will instant message with you or send you an email and say
thank you for this site. I donít think I could have got through the hours
without it or having the site thatís available 24 hours and that they can come
on late at night. And it makes it all worthwhile. If I got one of those comments
in the whole year that our siteís been up, it makes it all worthwhile for me.

G: No, the one who has a suicide website and somebody
connected with her.

H: Oh, yes, Carol. Okay, that was Cindyís son that died
in an auto accident. Yes, Carol just emailed us to thank us for the show and say
that she touched base with someone that had called in when she was a guest and
this person said that the show had impacted his life. And she just thanked us
for having her on.

G: Yeah, so itís amazing. It even goes out to our guests
and it just goes out into the whole universe. Itís amazing.

H: Well, like youíre both saying, we donít know who weíre
impacting. We hear from some of the people. There are many people out there that
are listening right now that weíll never hear from and we have no idea what
our influence is, but there are people that we will impact and there are so many
of you that have impacted me.

G: Absolutely. Yeah, well, John, before we close our show.
Our show is about healing through service and you were saying that there are
other ways besides the Net. Could you talk about some of those ideas for people?

J: Sure. I think there are a lot of opportunities for
people that want to help others as part of their own healing, and those donít
always relate directly to the field of grief. There are hospitals and centers
for developmentally disabled or the mentally ill or the blind or the deaf. If
you need to get out and do something that will more than likely take you in a
positive direction, I would always suggest checking into volunteering in one of
those areas of service.

H: Even the Salvation Army. We had a guest on who called
the Salvation Army, said I want to volunteer at Christmas and was one of the
ones that rang the bell and gathered money on the street in New York. And like
you said, there are many ways we can be of service.

G: Thatís right, and it can be just a one-time thing,
too. So if youíre at this point ready to commit to doing something at a
hospital on a weekly basis or whatever, you can call the Salvation Army like
they did and ring a bell.

J: Or look around you at your neighbors. Sometimes your
neighbors need help. They might have a broken leg and need you to run to the
store. All these little things do help you feel better about yourself.

G: You know Harriet Schiff who wrote The Bereaved
Parent, which is really kind of the quintessential book on grief and loss,
one of the first, said something that I thought was interesting. She said the
first thing that I knew I was starting to come back was Iíd baked a cake.

H: Right.

G: And why do you bake a cake? You bake a cake to give to
other people.

H: Absolutely. I had a guy once that paid for my toll in
the toll booth and when I got up there in my car, the guy said the person in
front of you paid and said have a nice day. He paid for me. That was his
service.

J: Thatís great.

H: And it made my day.

J: And I think it often does encourage other people when
you do a good deed. It kind of passes on down the line.

H: Absolutely.

G: And also if youíve suffered a loss and your family or
friends and the other people know, when they see you able to do one thing theyíre
so heartened because they do hurt for you, too.

J: Yes, yes. Thatís an important point.

G: So they see that youíre moving along, too, so itís
inspiring on both sides. Well, itís almost time for us to close the show,
John. I wondered if there are any thoughts or comments or anything that youíd
like to pass on before we end the show.

J: I would just say that if youíre hurting, reach out.
If you see somebody thatís hurting, reach out and try and meet somewhere in
the middle and I think everybody will come out better for it.

G: And how about visiting your space?

J: Yes. Please come check out our space at www.mygriefspace.net
and I would love to hear from you. Iím open to all comments, suggestions, new
visitors, new members. Come on over and check us out.

G: Now is there a fee for joining?

J: No, our site is absolutely free.

G: Thatís great. So Heidi, do you have any more thoughts
about the site before we close the show?

H: I think the site is wonderful for people out there, and
I would just say what John had said, to visit the site and just check it out and
see whatís going on especially if youíre feeling alone and youíre feeling
isolated and youíre feeling like you donít know how youíre going to
survive. You donít know how youíre going to get through this. Go on and see
how others have done it and that will be the first step.

G: So take care of yourself out there and itís time to
close our show today and we want to thank John Pete for talking with us about
"Healing Through Service." And I think he is a prime example of how
you can reach out and he has reached out in quite a big way, but how we can all
reach out in smaller ways also. Next week our guest is Rabbi Earl Grollman.
Rabbi Grollman is a noted writer, lecturer and teacher. Heís authored over 27
books on crisis management. Itís going to be quite an experience having Rabbi
Grollman on the show. We hope youíll listen in. This show is archived on our
blog, www.thegriefblog.com as well as www.thecompassionatefriends.org
website. Please stay tuned again next Thursday at 9:00 Pacific Standard Time,
12:00 Eastern for more of Healing The Grieving Heart, a show of
hope and renewal and support. Remember, others have been there before you and
made it, you can, too. You need not walk alone. Thanks for listening. Iím your
host Dr. Gloria Horsley with my co-host

H: Dr. Heidi Horsley. John, Rich, your grandmother and all
those that youíve loved and have lost are gone but never forgotten. They live
on in your heart and in your memories. Thank you for all the work you do to help
others heal on www.mygriefspace.net.
Thanks, John.